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Steve Jobs' Idea For an Ad-Supported OS

Posted by timothy on from the hey-it-works-for-broadcast-tv dept.

milbournosphere writes "It looks like Steve drew up an idea for an ad-supported OS. A patent was filed back in 2009 detailing how it was done. From the article: 'Rather than charge the normal upgrade price, which in those days was $99, he was thinking of shipping a second version of Mac OS 9 that would be given away for free — but would be supported instead by advertising. The theory was that this would pull in a ton of people who didn't normally upgrade because of the price, but Apple would still generate income through the advertising. And any time an owner of the free version wanted to get rid of the advertising, he or she could simply pay for the ad-free version. Steve's team had worked out the preliminary numbers the concept seemed financially sound.'"

5 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bad summary by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're hired.

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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. I thought it already had ads by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everytime I turn on my Mac, I get that picture of an apple.

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    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  3. Re:dumb idea by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Funny

    it makes me feel nauseous.

    To quote Sheldon:

    You also made a common grammatical mistake, you said nauseous when you meant nauseated. But go on.

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    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  4. Re:Excuse my French. by sofar · · Score: 3, Funny

    EXACTLY

    Let's just *always* give the OS away for free...!!! .... reminds me, what was that Linux thing again?

  5. Re:Excuse my French. by Green+Salad · · Score: 5, Funny

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